Birth: August 14, 1955

Citizenship: Russia

Occupational category and status: CEO of the football team Zenit and Vice Chairman of Gazprom (2014-2019)

Biography of Medvedev

In 1978, Alexander Ivanovich Medvedev received his degree in physics and technology from the Bauman Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Throughout the years 1978 and 1989, he was employed at the Institute of Global Economics and International Affairs in Moscow (IMEMO). In 1989–1991, In Vienna, Austria, Medvedev served as the director of Donau-Bank AG Sovzabranbank and as the managing director of a subsidiary of Inter Trade Consult GmbH. It was stated in the media that he and his subordinates in Austria were KGB spies working for the Soviet government.

Medvedev held the position of Director of IMAG

Medvedev held the position of Director of IMAG Investment Management and Advisory Group GmbH from the years 1991 to 1996. (Vienna, Austria). Throughout the years 1997 and 1998, he worked for East Oil Company as the vice president (Moscow). 1998 saw him become chairman of the IMAG Investment Management and Advisory Group for the second time. He has been a member of the Board of Directors at SOGAZ ever since it was established in June 2003.

Medvedev was appointed to the Coordination Council of the Swiss company RosUkrEnergo in July 2004. This company is a partnership between the Russian bank Gazprombank and the Austrian investment firm Raiffeisen Investment. Its purpose is to provide Ukraine with Turkmen gas. He served as General Director of Gazexport LLC, which is now known as Gazprom export, and as a member of the Gazprom Management Committee from 2002 to 2005. (Moscow).

Vice Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee

Alexander Medvedev served as the beginning on April 8, 2005, and continuing until February 25, 2019. Alexander Medvedev is the only Russian person to be included in Time magazine’s list of the top 100 most influential people in the world. This distinction was bestowed upon him in April 2009. An accompanying story mentioned that his business was responsible for the transportation of one-third of the gas that was used in Europe.

held the position of President of the Continental Hockey League from the years 2008 to 2014. He has held the position of president of the Zenit football club since 2019. (Note that Gazprom acquired a majority stake in the Zenit football club in 

Medvedev’s involvement in the planning of economic sanctions against Ukraine

Particularly between 2006 and 2014, Alexander Medvedev served as the deputy chairman of Gazprom and the CEO of Gazprom export, serving as the key engine for the Kremlin’s policy of “gas blackmail” towards Ukraine. It is impossible to include all the specifics of years of extortion in our brief assessment, but these three situations demand attention:

The Russian side attempted to eliminate advantageous tariffs for gas supply to Ukraine starting in 1993 for political reasons (for example, to speed up the division of the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet on favourable conditions for the Russian Federation). These tariffs for Belarus, which has been a steadfast ally of the Kremlin since 1992, were not contested during those same years.

Unreliable political partner

In addition to undermining Ukraine’s economy by portraying it as an “unreliable political partner,” Russia’s politically driven gas blackmail sought to strengthen Europe’s reliance on Russian energy suppliers via the North and South Streams.  In turn, this would increase the EU nations’ allegiance to the Putin regime in terms of foreign policy, according to the Kremlin strategists’ strategy.

The Russian Federation’s annexation of Crimea and the start of war operations in the Donbas in 2014 and 2019 were major factors in the intensification of Ukraine’s gas blackmail. These events followed the triumph of the anti-authoritarian Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine.

As a result, the latest round of the gas war has emerged as one of the key facets of the “hybrid war” waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine. This new Russian-Ukrainian gas war manifested itself first (in 2014) in the direct seizure of the Ukrainian gas transportation infrastructure by Gazprom subsidiaries in both the occupied and annexed territories with the help of the Russian military. This was in addition to the public debate over prices, pipelines, and threats to cut off raw material supplies.

In these circumstances, Russia’s demands that Ukraine pay more for the gas it receives appear like obvious arrogance and mocking because, in reality, the aggressor is the one who wants the victim to reimburse him for his costs. You should be aware that starting on April 1, 2014, Gazprom increased the cost of Russian gas to Ukraine from $268.5 to $485 per 1000 cubic meters.

The “hybrid warhorse” phase left Ukraine with nowhere to turn, however, as its gas demand increased even more. In May 2014, Ukraine was forced to repay its debt to Gazprom while rejecting the new gas price set by Gazprom officials and filing a lawsuit against the company in the International Arbitration Court. We are confident that Alexander Medvedev, an executive who has long been in charge of Gazprom’s operations overseas, deserves a great deal of personal blame for this particularly tense and protracted stage of the Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute.

In July 2018, Ukraine filed a fresh multibillion-dollar case against Gazprom after winning the Stockholm international arbitration against the Russian Federation and Gazprom in February 2018. We can also say that the key issue in the previous gas disputes between Gazprom and Naftogaz was not the adamantine of the Ukrainian side, but rather the fundamental intolerance of the Kremlin’s and its Gazprom officials’ position for Ukraine, given the difficulty in suspecting political engagement in the Stockholm arbitration.

FOR MORE ARTICLES ON CRIMINAL AFFAIRS

1. Dion Welton: Sentenced For Prison – Criminal Affair

2. The secret luxury of the SBU officer Artem Shilo – Criminal Affair